Nury Vittachi, Lecturer of PolyU Design, recently published his new book “The Curious Diary of Mr Jam: Official humorist for repressive regimes“ about a humorist in Asia refusing to believe that his audiences of conservative Muslims, Communist officials, religious police and Asian citizens in general have no sense of humor.

Nury teaches students how to write stories and how to create content for novels and movies. He is a successful author himself, with more than 20 books in print, many of which were published by major publishing houses around the world. He is PolyU Design’s favourite MC who hosted for many major events like Annual Show.

About the book:

Sam Jam’s whole life had been a tragic mistake.

As a humorist in Asia he had repeatedly been sacked, blacklisted and chased out of buildings.

But he refuses to believe that his audiences of conservative Muslims, Communist officials, religious police and Asian citizens in general have no sense of humor.

This funny, poignant tale, which the author describes as “a novel for legal reasons”, is more than just laugh-out-loud entertainment. It shines an essential light on what global culture will look like as eastern ways of thinking start to dominate.

With full support from the Leisure and Cultural Services Department of the Hong Kong Government, Vitra Design Museum, the Hong Kong Design Centre and The Hong Kong Polytechnic University School of Design joined hands in organising this year’s Asian MUSCON in Hong Kong on 20 – 23 September.

The Asian Museum Network Conference (MUSCON) 2012, coincided with the city’s celebration of 2012 as “Hong Kong Design Year” and focused on design museums as well as museum design in the context of Asia and its people. The Network Conference on day one brought together members of the museum community from around the world to exchange ideas and thoughts on upcoming projects. The Public Conference on day two welcomed members of the public to learn about the local and overseas projects, opportunities and knowledge, and contributed to the contemporary development of new museum concepts, collections, and exhibitions beyond the classic model of modern art museums.

Keynote speakers included Deyan Sudjic from Design Museum London, Hang Jian from China Museum of Design, Linda Vlassenrood from International New Town Institute, and Susanna Pettersson from Alvar Aalto Foundation, just to name a few. These speakers and more made up an interesting program featuring lectures on their specialties and topical discussions on this year’s theme: Design Museum, Museum Design.

In order to promote the exchange between European, American and Asian cultural institutions and respond to the museum boom in China and elsewhere in Asia, Asian MUSCON was launched in 2008 and has since become an increasingly significant event for Asian cultural institutes.